Just six months till our "cuz reunion"!

My regular readers know that my spring time reunion with my cousins down South is a big deal to me. In 2012, we will have it in April, as opposed to March as we have done the last few years.

So what is the big deal about getting together with cousins once a year and at a place out in the middle of no where? Well, there are a lot of reasons. I grew up with these "kids" (okay, so we aren't exactly kids anymore, the youngest of us is is pushing 50). We spent many good times together in our growing up years. But then I moved to New York in 1974. I was busy raising two sons and didn't get back down South much over 30 or so years. My dad died in 2003. It was sudden and I had to make a lot of arrangements quickly. I contacted Rita, my second cousin in Alabama. She took care of letting the rest of the family know.

In that blurred frenzy of flying down to Pensacola, Florida - my hometown and where my Dad lived - making arrangements and seeing cousins that I hadn't seen in years. . . I realized what I had missed for so many years. Amazingly, we picked up right where we left off. I said to my cousin, Kenny, "Boy, the last time I saw you, you were a skinny little shy kid." Without skipping a beat, Kenny replied, "Yea, well the last time I saw you, you weren't an old woman!"

After the funeral and we all scattered in every direction again, we did manage to keep in touch. Then I came up with the idea of getting together on our "ancestral" land. I sent out e-mails and made phone calls. None of them turned me down and in 2009, we got together for a day on the old homestead where our grandparents raised their children - our parents. This is land that has been in the Morgan family since it was deeded from the government way back in the 1800s. My grandfather was a cotton farmer on this land. In the 1960s, my father and his siblings built a pond there from two natural springs.

2012 will be our fourth consecutive year getting together and each year is more fun than the last. Some of us are avid gun enthusiasts and we bring our guns and enjoy target shooting on the property. We have a big meal and just enjoy walking the land and being together again.

This past year has brought major challenges and conflicts my way but I survived that storm and now I'm really, really looking forward to our time together again in the Spring. Onward!!!